The American Civil Liberties Union will weigh its interest in protecting the First Amendment against its other commitments to social justice, racial equality, and women's rights, given the possibility that offensive speech might undermine ACLU goals.

"Our defense of speech may have a greater or lesser harmful impact on the equality and justice work to which we are also committed," wrote ACLU staffers in a confidential memo obtained by former board member Wendy Kaminer.

It's hard to see this as anything other than a cowardly retreat from a full-throated defense of the First Amendment.

-Robby Soave

Dillard Smith complained that the ACLU has become “a special interest organization that promotes not all, but certain progressive rights” and that the “hierarchy of rights” the ACLU chooses to defend or ignore is “based on who is funding the organization’s lobbying activities.” -Maya Dillard Smith, former interim director of the Georgia chapter of the ACLU

An American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) Board Member in Colorado has resigned after making national news headlines for urging people to kill Donald Trump supporters.

The American Civil Liberties Union will weigh its interest in protecting the First Amendment against its other commitments to social justice, racial equality, and women's rights, given the possibility that offensive speech might undermine ACLU goals.

"Our defense of speech may have a greater or lesser harmful impact on the equality and justice work to which we are also committed," wrote ACLU staffers in a confidential memo obtained by former board member Wendy Kaminer.

Loring Wirbel, board member of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Colorado chapter and co-chair of the ACLU’s Colorado Springs chapter, called for supporters of GOP presidential hopeful Donald Trump to be shot before they vote for the billionaire businessman.

'The thing is, we have to really reach out to those who might consider voting for Trump and say, “This is Goebbels. This is the final solution. If you are voting for him I will have to shoot you before election day.” They’re not going to listen to reason, so when justice is gone, there’s always force, as Laurie would say.' -ACLU board member Loring Wirbel

An official for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California mocked elderly white people at a city council meeting last week, telling them they had “five years left.”... “It’s kind of mean for me to say it but these people have probably like five years left,” Nolasco said while gesturing to the white attendees at the meeting. A video of the meeting shows that several of them were elderly. The ACLU official said that Latinos and blacks are “the future,” and that “we don’t want to see an America that is hateful.”

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) embeds tracking software in its emails to monitor the online activity of Capitol Hill staffers, an aide told The Daily Caller after receiving a warning that sent to congressional offices. The nonprofit civil liberties group uses a software system called “Capwiz” to insert cookies onto the computers of Capitol Hill staffers who click on links in the emails, multiple Capitol Hill offices recently discovered. Ironically, the ACLU actually puts surveillance software into its emails campaigning against government surveillance.

Anthony D. Romero, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union, was arrested on a charge of driving while intoxicated in June, East Hampton Village police said on Tuesday... The arresting officer said Romero drove on the shoulder of Pantigo Road, near Egypt Lane, and then crossed the solid double-yellow line. He also "impeded traffic by driving 10 mph in a 30 mph speed zone," police said.

Prominent attorney David Friedman, who won major victories for the American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky in 25 years as its volunteer general counsel, has been permanently disbarred after absconding with clients’ money.

MONCKS CORNER, S.C. (KABC) -- The American Civil Liberties Union is pushing for porn at a detention center in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. The move came after reports surfaced that the facility only allowed inmates to read the Bible. But prison officials said that isn't true and inmates have a wide variety of reading material at their disposal.

Religious groups that oppose President Obama's mandate that they provide contraception are using the right to religious liberty as a way to discriminate against women, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in an email opposing congressional repeal of the mandate.

The early ACLU leadership vacationed together at Martha's Vineyard. On isolated beaches there, many practiced nudism. Nudists today are largely winked at if not ignored. But in the 1930s and '40s, they saw themselves as an avant-garde movement. Going undressed, they believed, would strengthen democracy by challenging the class distinctions so visible in clothing. They also thought the sight of people casually strolling in the buff would cool the frisson of obscenity. -Leigh Ann Wheeler, How Sex Became a Civil Liberty

Out-of-control secrecy is a serious disease that is hurting American democracy," the ACLU rightly declared last month, introducing an important new report on the vast and secretive national security state. But the ACLU's opposition to government secrecy is selective: It has yet to complain about the reported failure of the East Hampton police to disclose DWI charges against ACLU Executive Director Anthony Romero in what the New York Post calls its "weekly press release package that includes details of every DWI charge." The Post reports that Romero was pulled over for "careening into oncoming traffic" back on June 26th; he refused a Breathalyzer and reportedly "stalled for time" when asked for his ID.

Thanks to the ACLU of Pennsylvania, motorists in that state will be free to swear at and give the finger to police officers and other motorists, thus lowering public decency another notch. Meanwhile, the officers themselves will be forced to undergo “training” on the “right” to flip people off.

In 1931, just eleven years after the ACLU's inception, the US Congress convened a Special House Committee to Investigate Communist Activities. On the ACLU it reported:

The American Civil Liberties Union is closely affiliated with the communist movement in the United States, and fully 90 percent of its efforts are on behalf of communists who have come into conflict with the law. It claims to stand for free speech, free press and free assembly, but it is quite apparent that the main function of the ACLU is an attempt to protect the communists.

Kengor found a May 23, 1931 letter in the archives signed by ACLU founder Roger Baldwin, written on ACLU stationery, to then American Communist Party Chairman William Z. Foster asking him to help ACLU Chairman Harry Ward with his then-upcoming trip to Stalin’s Russia.

"The thing is, we have to really reach out to those who might consider voting for Trump and say, “This is Goebbels. This is the final solution. If you are voting for him I will have to shoot you before election day.” They’re not going to listen to reason, so when justice is gone, there’s always force, as Laurie would say."

The ACLU is backing a woman who created stir when she installed Christmas lights on the outside of her home in the shape of a hand with an extended middle finger. Sarah Childs' display caused an uproar in Denham Springs, and according to the ACLU of Louisiana, Childs was wrongly ordered by a police officer to take down the decorations or be taken to jail. The ACLU believes that this violates Childs' First Amendment rights and has filed a suit in federal court.

The top official at the American Civil Liberties Union seems to be losing patience with President Barack Obama and his administration. "I'm going to start provocatively ... I'm disgusted with this president," Romero told the America's Future Now breakout session... "I'm not disgusted at President Obama personally. It's President Obama's policies on civil liberties and national security issues I'm disgusted by. It's not a personal attack," Romero said.